Protecting biodiversity with the right to a healthy environment: lessons from climate change litigation
Year: 2024
Type: book-chapter
Abstract: Biodiversity loss is increasingly identified as a potential threat to human rights. In the absence of any references to biodiversity in human rights treaties and the near absence from constitutions, biodiversity can be protected by the nearly universally recognised right to a healthy environment. But can this right be used to protect biodiversity in the context of another global environmental problem, climate change? To answer this question, this Chapter analyses three cases in Colombia, Nepal, and Norway, where the claimants invoked a constitutionally recognised right to a healthy environment when they challenged the respective governments on climate change grounds, and where the courts considered the impacts on biodiversity. These three cases offer a valuable insight into the application of the right to a healthy environment when dealing with biodiversity loss and climate change, as courts are already using this right to tackle the intersection between these two planetary crises.
Source: Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks
Author: Sam Varvastian
Institution: Cardiff University
Language: English
Topic: Environmental law and policy
Subfield: Law
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4405524873